Is my fishless cycle nearly finished…??

[katefshaw]

Hi please can you help me with my fishless cycle?

Ive been cycling my Fluval edge 23l tank now for five weeks. I think I am coming to the end of my cycle because when I add 4ppm ammonia, it gets converted to nitrite within 24 hours. The only worry is that my nitrite levels are so high, they look past 5ppm. I have a high reading of nitrate in my tank (I've attached a pic because I'm not too sure what the ppm reading of nitrate is!) so I know there must be some nitrite - nitrate converting bacteria present. But I'm not sure there is enough. I did a pwc about one week ago to bring readings down to a reasonable level however nitrite was still sky high. What should I do now?

I have checked my tap water and it contains no nitrite/nitrates.



Thanks for all of your help

 

[cfosgate]

This looks like about 100 ppm of nitrates. If cycled then ammonia and nitrites will be zero. If nitrites are about five you could be coming down the home stretch.

 

[katefshaw]

My ammonia is at 0ppm, nitrite at 5 + ppm and my ph at 7.6ppm. Do I not have enough nitrite-nitrate bacteria yet because nitrites are so high?

 

[cfosgate]

You're on the right track. Nitrite eating bacteria take twice as long to multiply as the ammonia eating bacteria. This means that it takes a while but since you have so many nitrates showing up it's nearly finished. Watch your ph and don't let it get below 6.5 or so as that will slow or stall the process.

 

[Pandicorn]

You're on your way! It's crazy, one day you'll wake up, test, and bam. 0 nitrites. Except when ammonia reaches 0, I suggest dosing up to only 1 ppm